Best Pasta in Seattle According to a Local (2025)

Seattle isn’t known for its Italian American immigrants, so finding the best pasta in Seattle can be challenging. Lucky for you I’m an Italian American that grew up on the east coast, which means I developed a discerning palate for Italian food in the States.

When I moved to Seattle over a decade ago, I was appalled at the lack of Italian restaurants serving good pasta. Naturally, I made it my mission to find the best pasta in Seattle. I ate pasta after pasta, and luckily I can say I’ve found the pasta dishes worth seeking out.

Here’s my roundup of the best pasta in Seattle, ranging from handmade pasta to more casual places creating excellent versions of Italian American classics often found at red sauce joints on the east coast.

The Best Pasta in Seattle

Save this to Pinterest for later because I’ll keep it updated with more of the best pasta in Seattle as I find them!

Pasta Casalinga

website | location: 93 Pike St (Downtown) | best for: bolognese

No tour of Pike Place Market is complete without visiting this hidden pasta restaurant in the atrium. Many tourists miss it, but locals know this is the place to get the best pasta in Seattle.

Co-owner and chef Michela hails from Torino, Italy and makes the most supple, flavor-packed pastas. You can watch her making pasta regularly from the open air kitchen, or buy some to take home if you’re in a rush.

But missing out on her warm pastas would be a mistake. The menu changes regularly, but you’ll almost always find her lasagna and wild boar ragu. I love how earthy the ragu is thanks to both the meat and a generous sprig of thyme. Each dish is finished by Michela with fresh cheese and olive oil before serving, adding just the right finishes to create an over-the-top excellent pasta dish.

Spinasse

website | location: 1531 14th Ave (Capitol Hill) | what to get: Tajarin al Ragu

Spinasse is one of my OG Italian restaurant favorites and also one of the best fine dining restaurants in Seattle. They’ve been making fresh, hand-cut pasta since back when Jason Stratton (now at Mezzanotte in Georgetown, another honorary mention for great pasta) was the executive chef.

Their tajarin is thicker than angel hair, but thinner than fettuccini. If your hair got tangled the way this pasta does you’d call it tangled, but in a pasta dish it’s heavenly because it means the sauce gets tangled too.

The result? The taste of their addictive sauce in every single bite. Just thinking about this at one of my favorite go-to restaurants in Seattle is making me salivate.

Il Nido

website | location: 2717 61st Ave SW (West Seattle) | what to get: any pasta they serve

Mike Easton is the godfather of pasta in Seattle. He used to sell handmade pasta for ~$10 a dish out of his order-at-the-counter fast casual spot in Pioneer Square. The lines were always so long, which should be a sign that this pasta is good.

He’s since closed his more casual spot Il Corvo in Pioneer Square, but luckily he opened Il Nido, a fancier sit-down concept he opened in a historic building close to Alki Beach. He no longer ownes Il Nido, but its still one of the best restaurants in West Seattle for pasta because the crew is still using a lot of techniques he taught them.

Pro tip: Mike Easton now helms the restaurant at Abeja Inn & Winery, one of the best restaurants in Walla Walla!

Stoneburner

website | location: 5214 Ballard Ave NW (Ballard) | what to get: carbonara

If you remember my post on must try dishes in Seattle, you know the carbonora from Stoneburner is on it. It also graces the cover of my self-guided Seattle food tour of Ballard and is on my list of where you must eat in North Seattle. So to say I like this pasta is an understatement.

Stoneburner sometimes serves the carbonara with lamb belly instead of pancetta, but no matter the meat it’s always addictively sweet thanks to caramelized onions. It balances off the salty fattiness of the meat, cheese, and egg yolk beautifully.

Craving pasta in Seattle for breakfast? You can get this dish on their brunch menu. It’s one of my favorite brunch dishes in Seattle.

The Pink Door

website | location: 1919 Post Alley (Downtown) | best for: bolognese and lasagna

This spot is tucked toward the end of Post Alley in Pike Place Market. It has a speakeasy vibe thanks to its discreet pink door (get it?) and only a small placard announcing its presence.

But when you enter the restaurant you’re met with a ton of character. It’s decorated like Carnival in Venice, with apparatus hanging from the ceiling for Burlesque performers and all (which is typically Saturday nights pre-pandemic). They also have a great outdoor patio tucked in the market with views of the Seattle waterfront, making it one of the best restaurants in Seattle for views.

Given its prime location I thought for sure this place would have mediocre food. However they’re making some of the best pasta in Seattle hands down. While I’ve had a few dishes that were just ok, the bolognese and lasagna here are out of this world.

The bolognese is a hefty portion of deeply-flavored meat sauce. And the lasagna…omg. It reminds me of those crepe layer cakes with layer upon layer of thin pasta sheets perfectly cooked in a ramekin, stuffed with the creamiest ricotta, and topped with pesto.

San Fermo

website | location: 5341 Ballard Ave NW (Ballard) | what to get: saffron bolognese

San Fermo is in a cute-as-a-button, refurbished house in downtown Ballard. It has excellent decor and solid Italian food, but the real star is their pasta.

The must get dish here is the saffron spaghetti. It’s available for both brunch and dinner and is crazy addictive. Its secret ingredient is fennel, which makes it slightly sweet and adds that, “Hmm, what is that?” element to the dish. If you end up at this Seattle Italian restaurant, make sure you get this dish because it’s one some of the best pasta in Seattle!

The Cavatelli Project

website | location: roams, but often at Holy Mountain Brewing | what to get: cavatelli 😉

As their name implies, The Cavatelli Project’s focus is pretty singular. If you’re not familiar with cavatelli, it’s an oblong, shell-like-shaped pasta that’s often more pillow-y than other styles. It kind of reminds me of gnocchi, but without a filling or potato.

I grew up in New Jersey eating cavatelli, but unfortunately this pasta shape isn’t easy to find in food stores around Seattle. So when I heard of The Cavatelli Project, they shot up my list of food to try. However, trying their pasta takes some perseverance, as they’re a pop-up with only a semi-regular cadence. But the effort is worth it!

Their menu changes with each pop-up, but you can expect cavatelli served with 3 different sauces, one vegetarian, and a salad. When I last went, the theme was “BBQ” and we ordered the had a pork ragu, corn and bacon sauce, and a side salad.

Their pastas are exquisite: pillow-y with a bit of chew. The sauces run the gamut of delicate like the pork ragu or assertive like the corn and bacon. Whatever the flavors they come up with, the flavors are always comforting.

Pro tip: I wasn’t expecting to love the salad as much as I did, but the balance of texture and flavor is one of the best salads in Seattle. It included chicory and baby gem lettuce, crispy prosciutto, pecans, red peas, gouda, basil, and oregano. I absolutely loved the earthy kick of the oregano because you never really get that in a salad!

Cortina

website | location: 621 Union St (Downtown) | what to get: bucatini

Ethan Stowell is known for his pasta, which most people get at his flagship restaurant Tavolata. However, I’m a fan of Cortina.

There are quite a few pastas on the menu at Cortina, but the dish that I think you must get when you want the best pasta in Seattle is the bucatini with beef and ricotta meatballs and bone marrow.

If I’m honest, the meatballs are just ok. Typically this would have me writing off a dish, but the flavor of the sauce was so good I looked pass this miss. It reminds me of the bolognese at Haymaker with its depth of flavor, thanks to the addition of bone marrow. I just kept saying, “Oh my god, this is so good,” as I messily slurped down the noodles.

The flavor is reminiscent of the bologneses and ragus at other Ethan Stowell restaurants, so if you can’t make it to Cortina, get this dish at his other spots Tavolata or Rione XIII. Basically if you’re at one of Stowell’s Italian spots, you’re going to be eating some of the best pasta in Seattle.

G.H. Pasta & Pizza

website | location: 7500 35th Ave SW (West Seattle) | what to get: tonnarelli

G.H. used to be a casual pasta restaurant among the top restaurants in South Lake Union, but they are now located in a more sit-down brick-and-mortar in West Seattle. And now that the space is bigger, they also have small plates and pizza.

Luckily one of their staples from their SLU days is still available: the tonnarelli. It’s a square-shaped, spaghetti-like pasta served with truffle butter, Parmigiano, and black pepper. It’s like a cacio e pepe, but elevated in earthiness thanks to the truffle.

Due’ Cucina

website | locations: Cap Hill, Totem Lake, Roosevelt, and West Seattle (get directions) | what to get: cacio e pepe

Due’ Cucina is a fast casual pasta spot opened by two Italian graduates out of MIT. They got the school to fund the development of a healthy ancient grain pasta.

They really elevate their proprietary pasta recipe in their cacio e pepe. This traditional Roman pasta dish has Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, and that’s it. Due’ Cucina puts a unique spin on it by using pink peppercorns to create a more subtle, nuanced flavor I’ve never experienced before but absolutely love!

NoLIta

website | location: 5909 15th Ave NW (Ballard) | best for: bolognese and tortellini Alfredo

This Seattle newcomer took over the Pasta Bella space on busy 15th Ave running through Ballard. It reminds me exactly of the types of places that were everywhere in New Jersey when I was growing up. I’m talking those Italian American joints serving homey classics like chicken Parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, and so on.

Just like those places on the east coast, NoLIta doesn’t make their own pasta, but their sauces are excellent. The must gets here are the bolognese and Tortellini ai Formaggi e Proscuitto, that is four cheese pasta with prosciutto and peas. Both are so flavorful. Trust me, you aren’t going to want to share!